yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Redmi Note 2 General] jajk:
The problem with MIUI is that every app that Xiaomi has touched has features that make it spyware. The skinny images block a little by disabling tunman (the user needs to still delete the executable), mdbd (which is deleted or renamed to stop it running) and various OTA update services. However, Xiaomi not only tries to connect via these methods, it also uses FTP and non-TCP/IP exploits over mobile networks. Adding entries to hosts file

will help

a little bit more but only on the (non-VPN) TCP/IP based spying mechanisms. The built in firewall and permissions / security apps are designed to intentionally not alert you to the activities of Xiaomi. But still users want to use the crappy inbuilt apps and connect to download themes etc, etc. The price you pay is your privacy - just like Google only a little more evil;)

If you dig around in the etc and permissions folders, you will find a few places where Xiaomi whitelists itself that can also be edited out.

It pleases me to browse through a logcat each now and then and see the numerous failed attempts to connect to Xiaomi;)

Has anyone wondered why VPN is enabled by default? Does everyone immediately disable it?
[Redmi Note 2 General] Sleepy_Augie:
[MENTION=5952980]jajk[/MENTION] eeek! never noticed that VPN was always on. Spooked. I used to really be into internet privacy, but eventually it felt like just a big battle with companies where the end goal was kinda dumb/wasn't worth it to me. I feel like if I want to have privacy in my life, I can work to have that, and if I want to have the internet and electronics that connect people, I'll have those instead. The part I don't like is that my battery is being wasted on dumb junk services I don't even care about!

Information junkies, picking up bytes from beneath your shoes and selling them for cents.
[Redmi Note 2 General] DarthJabba9:
I never noticed that either.:mad: You learn new things all the time; we need to be eagle-eyed. SkyNet is on the watch!
[Redmi Note 2 General] jajk:
Xiaomi is not the only culprit here - Huawei is banned from supplying telecoms infrastructure electronics here in Australia since it was found that the firmware had built in full blown spyware. Let's not get paranoid about it, but if you buy a Chinese phone, particularly ones with a GUI wrapper around Android (MIUI, eMIUI, etc) , you need to know not to use it for commercial or other sensitive activities.
[Redmi Note 2 General] Shafwan7:
[MENTION=5952980]jajk[/MENTION] do u have flashable script for system app remover?
[Redmi Note 2 General] jajk:
[MENTION=5111115]Shafwan7[/MENTION] No, there are too many user choices to be made plus Xiaomi changing the names of their apps regularly to bamboozle users and defeat attempts to automate removal.
[Redmi Note 2 General] maxnah:
Sorry for Noob (maybe) but when i flash skinny_boot 8020 v8 get a bootloop... (steps - wipe, flash boot, wipe, reboot to recovery, reboot system) (busybox and supersu instaled before flash boot your recomended version)

system RNH3 (3/32), multirom 8.0.2.0 ... what did i do wrong?
[Redmi Note 2 General] jdstrydom:
What exactly did you wipe? The skinny boot is just a boot partition, so if you wiped system for example, you will have a bootloop.

I use the skinny 8.0.20 rom in the general thread, reboot a few times and setup, and then I flash the skinny boot with only cache & Dalvik. The rom is preserved and booting with by the slim boot image.

Sorry if I misunderstood you.
[Redmi Note 2 General] jajk:
[MENTION=1404589]maxnah[/MENTION] What exactly do you mean by RNH3? I have not released a working version for Redmi Note 3. If you found a version on my GoogleDrive, it is experimental and not working. I will not be releasing any RN3 stuff myself.
[Redmi Note 2 General] jdstrydom:
Thanks. I only noticed now from your comment that he was using RN3
[Redmi Note 2 General] maxnah:
i read your first post and think that after 7.5.. version mods are suiteble to RN3... sory mistake..
[Redmi Note 2 General] prongsjiisan:
Hi. I want to replace MIUI launcher with other launcher. Could you help me to point out wich miui launcher files that save to delete. And replace it with other launcher.. I want to remove the miui launcher from ROM.zip. I'm using note 2 and Skinny Miui 8
[Redmi Note 2 General] jajk:
[MENTION=7497782]prongsjiisan[/MENTION] Delete /system/priv-app/MiuiHome folder to remove MIUI Home Launcher. If you delete it in the ROM before installing, you may get FCs on initial setup.......
[Redmi Note 2 General] Sleepy_Augie:
Was using Gsam, and I was wondering if there are any services I missed in the skinnying process. My phone is often still "awake" while in my pocket.

Edit: since it seams like [MENTION=5216574]Gyovany96[/MENTION] is pretty active in this slimming process, I'll tag him.
[Redmi Note 2 General] Gyovany96:
I personally don't see anything suspicious... But maybe I'm blind :p Try freezing unneeded apps and also stop autostarts with SDMaid like I said in my thread ( if you haven't already done that ). Also disable features like "prevent pocket unlock..." Etc.

P.S. Better ask on Skinny Pro Boot thread , that thread it's the most active with this kind of tasks and I'm sure jajk or someone else will help you ;) I personally nearly have time to skinny my ROMs.. :(
[Redmi Note 2 General] jajk:
[MENTION=7150090]Sleepy_Augie[/MENTION] Security Core is something I would uninstall along with Security Add if that is still present. I wrote a piece on trimming down the Security apps services to the essentials (other thread). Most of the stuff bundled into the Security container is evil rubbish that will make like E.T and call home at every possible chance.
[Redmi Note 2 General] vaselor:
Hello jajk.

Do you know why our phones have a file called tcpdump in /system/xbin? Could it be another privacy threat?

Thank you.
[Redmi Note 2 General] jajk:
[MENTION=7117356]vaselor[/MENTION] The way to get an idea what the file might do (apart from Googling it) is to open the file as a zip archive and then open .rodata in a text editor. This goes for most executable files. It does look like it is heavily involved in the internal workings of TCP/IP packets so could be a threat? Rename it and see what stops working:good: I will do just that and also dig around a bit more.
[Redmi Note 2 General] vaselor:
[MENTION=5952980]jajk[/MENTION] Thank you. Will try that to investigate.
[Redmi Note 2 General] vaselor:
So I renamed it and everything works. I got a bit paranoid because tcpdump is a tool for sniffing TCP packets. Should we rename it until we know something more? Have you discovered something?

Thanks
[Redmi Note 2 General] jajk:
[MENTION=7117356]vaselor[/MENTION] Packet sniffing may be required for usb tethering or hotspot or anything else that acts like a network switch so I wouldn't be to quick to rule this as being straight out malicious even though Xiaomi has no credibility in the ethical stakes. I haven't done anything yet but I will and report back soon.
[Redmi Note 2 General] vaselor:
[MENTION=5952980]jajk[/MENTION] Completely true, I didn't think about that possibility. Of course I didn't try tethering.

Thank you
[Redmi Note 2 General] jajk:
[MENTION=7117356]vaselor[/MENTION] wifi and usb tethering works without tcpdump. I am trying to think what else needs to sniff packets for network switching or routing functions??? Maybe VPN?

The file seems to be part of the standard set included with any Android so the conspiracy theories are probably not founded unless you include Google as being in on the act. That could never happen:angel:
[Redmi Note 2 General] vaselor:
Double post, sorry
[Redmi Note 2 General] alsyundawy:
its working with miui v7.5.50 chinnese rom?
[Redmi Note 2 General] dissidius:
excellent thread

how do i make cpu on idle 403mhz ?
[Redmi Note 2 General] dissidius:
also i can't seem to get zram working followimg the guide

I'm on xiaomi.eu 6.12.15 skinned down + skinny miui pro boot.img 6.12.15

in dev options memory optimiztion OFF

permissions are correct in system/bin also on init.d
[Redmi Note 2 General] jajk:
I am not really keeping this thread updated so it may contain out of date information - use the Skinny Pro Boot images thread instead.

[MENTION=2141342]dissidius[/MENTION] Make sure you use the following syntax to get zram working and install the latest busybox files.

echo 536870912 > /sys/block/zram0/disksize # 536870912 = 512MB (for non-prime version) 1073741824=1GB (for prime version)
/system/xbin/busybox mkswap /dev/block/zram0
/system/xbin/busybox swapon /dev/block/zram0
echo 100 > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

[MENTION=7682336]alsyundawy[/MENTION] Yes it will work with China Stable 7550
[Redmi Note 2 General] AssToast:
[MENTION=5952980]jajk[/MENTION] Plan to update it to only include removing apps? Xiaomi apps are just a pile of mess to figure out what to remove.
[Redmi Note 2 General] n0_xQuZe:
I hoped to find something good here but sadly that's not the case. I went ahead and deleted some of the apps you said are definitely ok to delete. PowerKeeper for example and it kept saying unfortunately powerkeeper has stopped working or something and i couldn't do anything. Had to install the application again and it took me 10 minutes cause every time i pressed something it sent the same error. Same thing happened with find device! Seems like you can't just go ahead and delete apps.
[Redmi Note 2 General] Sleepy_Augie:
A reboot will clear that up (powerkeeper is especially annoying when you uninstall it). If you have sdmaid you can do a full cleaning as well after uninstalling apps.
[Redmi Note 2 General] DarthJabba9:
Here are some thoughts. I have Android MM (6.0) on one phone (Zopo ZP998) and Nougat (7.1) on another (Samsung Galaxy SII i9100). Having played with them extensively, I have found no reason (apart from security fixes) why I would need either them on my RN2. To my mind, a Skinny MIUI ROM with up-to-date security fixes would be just fine. Therefore, I am not too upset by not having MM or Nougat.

What would be really nice with a Skinny ROM is a way to automate the freezing of apps that we want to freeze, and disabling of autostarts (receivers) that we want to disable. Reason? It probably would make it easier to do this in newly installed ROMs, and to aovid errors or omissions. Since all these can be done manually, it must be possible to do them in a script.

So - does anyone know of

built-in

Android commands (or even 3rd party utilities that can be run from a terminal/script) which can be used to (a) freeze an app, and (a) disable autostarts in an app? I am quite happy to test such commands myself.
[Redmi Note 2 General] acestars:
i think you can use pm disable command. it can receive app package or app components as parameter. if you have MyAndroidTool you can check it's command by supersu logs.
[Redmi Note 2 General] DarthJabba9:
Thanks. It seems that the pm command is all that is needed. I will have to study that command in detail. It seems that pm hide disables the whole application, but pm disable can be used on a component basis.
[Redmi Note 2 General] jajk:
[MENTION=5850987]DarthJabba9[/MENTION] Perpetual Android updates are designed to bring about early hardware obsolescence and to progressively bring in monetizing aspects. My view is that Android is less of an O.S and more of a marketing platform at every increment just as MIUI is 90% adware/spyware and 10% function. Decompile a bit of it if you are not convinced;)

I have installed 6.0 and 7.1.1 on my retired Moto G just for interest sake and see worthwhile performance improvements over 5.1 (all AOSP-CAF - no CM). If I was to be stranded on any version, 5.02 would be my least favorite choice - even 5.1 is a decent leap forward. The horror of it all is that I could install MIUI8 on my Moto G but sticking sharp sticks in my eyes sounds a much better alternative:eek:
[Redmi Note 2 General] DarthJabba9:
I wouldn't like to be stranded on any version, and if there was a sensible AOSP MM or Nougat alternative to MIUI on RN2, I would go for it. However, the RN2 AOSP and CM ROMs all tend to have issues that I cannot live with. So I have decided to cut my losses and try and make the best of the one (MIUI) that actually does everything that I need it to do. When I finally know what to replace the RN2 with (and the jury is still out on that question), I will give up on the RN2 altogether (it will then just become a plaything like my other discarded phones).
[Redmi Note 2 General] jajk:
[MENTION=5850987]DarthJabba9[/MENTION] Exactly. I think that the RN2 (and RN3 MTK) following will diminish rapidly as phones (prematurely) fail and firmware support vaporizes. If my new batteries do not arrive from what now seems to be a bad choice of supplier, I will not re-order but instead bring the standby Ulefone into frontline service. I have finally managed to de-odex the Ulefone 5.1 ROM and start doing some serious tuning on it

plus

there is a very high likelyhood of an extremely easy port from their next model's 6.0 ROM back to my device. That should keep me amused until the next "can't resist" offering appears. Hmmm....... 7nm this year:)
[Redmi Note 2 General] DarthJabba9:
[MENTION=3885679]acestars[/MENTION] From my investigations, I think I can confirm that the command to freeze applications seems to be "pm hide" - eg

pm hide com.xiaomi.xmsf # freeze Xiaomi Service Framework
pm hide com.xiaomi.simactivate.service # freeze Xiaomi Sim Activate Service
pm hide com.miui.home.launcher.assistant # freeze PersonalAssistantPlugin

Is this your understanding of it as well?

With regard to disabling autostarts, I am not sure about the correct syntax - eg, if I want to disable autostarts in Updater, do I do this

pm disable com.android.updater/com.android.updater.android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED

or this

pm disable com.android.updater/com.android.updater.BootCompletedReceiver
pm disable com.android.updater/com.android.updater.DailyCheckReceiver

[MENTION=5952980]jajk[/MENTION] Do you know anything about "com.miui.personalassistant" ? Should it be frozen?
[Redmi Note 2 General] acestars:
afaik for freezing apps using pm disable because i enable documentui using pm enable, idk about pm hide.

i never disable autostart using pm so im not sure.

http://android.stackexchange.com/qu...-how-to-see-applications-that-run-at-start-up
[Redmi Note 2 General] DarthJabba9:
Yes, after a few tests, I see that "pm disable" works to freeze the app, and "pm hide" seems to have no effect at all. So, some of what is "out there" on the net appears to be wrong (as one might expect) - or perhaps things work differently with different versions of Android.

So, to confirm after my own tests, this is what works to freeze the apps (running in a root terminal)

pm disable com.xiaomi.xmsf # freeze Xiaomi Service Framework
pm disable com.xiaomi.simactivate.service # freeze Xiaomi Sim Activate Service
pm disable com.miui.home.launcher.assistant # freeze PersonalAssistantPlugin

Thanks. I actually got my original syntax tips from that page, but none of it has any effect in disabling autostarts. The struggle continues ...
[Redmi Note 2 General] DarthJabba9:
Update: the syntax "pm disable <package>/<Class>" works to disable autostarts; it didn't work with Updater because Updater's bootreceiver autostart refuses to be disabled at all (not even by SDMaid). The moral of the story is to first ensure that the autostart can be disabled with SDMaid before wasting your time trying to use "pm disable" on it.

---------- Post added at 10:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:26 PM ----------

Ok, here is a script to do the freezing / disable autostarts -

use at your own peril

!

#!/system/bin/sh
# Freeze/Disable Autostarts script
# Run in a root terminal

# freeze these apps #
pm disable com.xiaomi.xmsf # Xiaomi Service Framework
pm disable com.xiaomi.simactivate.service # Xiaomi Sim Activate Service
pm disable com.miui.home.launcher.assistant # PersonalAssistantPlugin

# Disable Autostarts (MIUI system)
pm disable com.mediatek.atci.service/com.mediatek.atci.service.AtciIntentReceiver
pm disable com.android.provider.calendar/com.android.provider.calendar.CalendarReceiver
pm disable com.android.provider.contacts/com.android.provider.contacts.ContactsUpgradePostReceiver
pm disable com.android.provider.downloads/com.android.provider.downloads.DownloadReceiver
pm disable com.google.android.onetimeinitializer/com.google.android.onetimeinitializer.OneTimeInitializeReceiver
pm disable com.google.android.partnersetup/com.google.android.partnersetup.GooglePartnerSetup
pm disable com.google.android.partnersetup/com.google.android.partnersetup.RlzPingBroadcastReceiver
pm disable com.miui.core/com.miui.internal.server.Receiver
pm disable com.mediatek.nlpservice/com.mediatek.nlpservice.BootUpReceiver
pm disable com.mediatek.omacp/com.mediatek.omacp.message.OmacpReceiver
pm disable com.android.stk/com.android.stk.BootCompletedReceiver
pm disable com.android.thememanager/com.android.thememanager.service.ThemeTaskReceiver

# Disable Autostarts (Others)
# pm disable com.skype.raider/com.skype.android.push.RegisterReceiver # Skype
pm disable com.google.android.youtube/com.google.android.apps.youtube.app.common.upload.MainAppUploadService$BootReceiver # Youtube
pm disable com.google.android.youtube/com.google.android.libraries.youtube.offline.service.OfflineTransferService$DeviceStateReceiver # Youtube
pm disable com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup/com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup.schedules.BootReceiver # Titanium Backup
pm disable eu.thedarken.sdm/eu.thedarken.sdm.scheduler.SchedularWard # SD Maid
pm disable com.rhmsoft.fm/com.rhmsoft.fm.hd.BootBroadcastReceiver # File Manager
[Redmi Note 2 General] رامز:
O.K now i can confirm in stage3 that removing "find device" in MIUI8.1.2 using luckyPatcher causes stuck at boot logo (looks like it's related to the stock miui launcher in anyway)....fortunately NO backup was made so I've ended up downloading SKINNY_V2 (^_^) i'll test it and upload the results.

BTW...I was really shocked comparing my old RN1 with RN2 screen, although comparing HD to FHD screens seems unfair but really the old RN1 has brighter & colder colors while RN2 seem yellowish! i'll upload a screenshot of both if somebody interested.

many thanks [MENTION=5952980]jajk[/MENTION] and kudos to your work and [MENTION=5216574]Gyovany96[/MENTION] in backing RN2 to life again
[Redmi Note 2 General] Gyovany96:
Removing FindDevice shouldn't give you bootloop on any MIUI ROM ( even on Stable Global like yours )... It is related to Xiaomi localisation on XiaomiAccount ( like anti-theft etc. ). Maybe you were logged into XiaomiAccount when you deleted it and that maybe cause that bootloop. BTW better use Link2SD for system apps management ;)

If I remember right , RN2 has some models with yellow display appearance... Try playing a bit with Contrast on Display Settings ( cold colors , etc. ). If it's still yellowish then I think you're one of the unlucky RN2 yellowish display users.. :p
[Redmi Note 2 General] رامز:
thanks for reply......just a small question, I see that you've done the hard work by removing proper libs and apps from system image did you include latest [MENTION=5952980]jajk[/MENTION] skinny pro boot image in the rom "7112_V26 for miui8 as i remember" or we've to flash it separately?
[Redmi Note 2 General] Gyovany96:
Nope , Skinny Pro Boot it's an Optional step !
[Redmi Note 2 General] Sleepy_Augie:
[MENTION=5952980]jajk[/MENTION] Is there anything we can skinny down in the buildprop that would be good? For example, is wfd.dummy.enable=1 something that doesn't need to run? Persist.sys.whetstone.level? Antibricking.level? ro.miui.has_real_blur? ro.miui.has_handy_mode? Mirravision? mitalk.enable=true?
[Redmi Note 2 General] jajk:
[MENTION=7150090]Sleepy_Augie[/MENTION] Yes, build.prop does contain a few settings that can be turned off. It is going to vary with ROM version and individual needs but here is a list of what I turn off: (not an exhaustive list)

ro.mtk_voice_unlock_support=0
ro.mtk_voice_contact_support=0
ro.mtk_matv_analog_support=0
ro.mtk_aal_support=0
ro.mtk_ultra_dimming_support=0
ro.mtk_miravision_support=0
ro.mtk_miravision_image_dc=0
ro.mtk_sim_hot_swap=0
ro.mtk_cmcc_ft_precheck_support=0
ro.mtk_external_sim_support=0
ro.mtk_voice_extension_support=0
persist.sys.mitalk.enable=false

Some of these are because I don't use or delete the corresponding function, others are because our phone does not support the function anyway.

Some ROMs add a bunch of useless tweaks at the end of the file - delete the whole lot - I haven't seen a useful one yet.

Additional tweaks that work and are useful are:

ro.config.media_vol_steps=20
ro.config.vc_call_steps=12
wifi.supplicant_scan_interval=180

If you want to know what our phone actually supports, look at /system/data/misc/ProjectConfig.mk. It should be self-explanatory and dispel a few myths;)
[Redmi Note 2 General] Sleepy_Augie:
Well, pretty interesting file. Lots of info, - wait... gameloft? lol

Besides that, do you think you could upload your build.prop so I could compare it with mine? I deleted a bunch of miui.ru edits, but I'm wondering if there are other unmarked changes that were made.
[Redmi Note 2 General] Sleepy_Augie:
*deleted*
[Redmi Note 2 General] H0Odini:
Documents issues

So I've just realised the cause of a @#£& problem I've had with miui storage. Third party apps like amazon music and media players stopped displaying media content based on their date added, and I'm currently about to move to CM 12 but couldn't complete backups as I couldn't find where some of my storage was being used, due to not being able to view files arranged in their file size order, tried with multiple file manager apps. I also had trouble with writing to my sd card. Turns out, the documents app from xiaomi is actually required for the maintenance of working storage. This isn't usually an accessible app but can normally be found in installed apps in settings. Anyone know where to find the original apk?
[Redmi Note 2 General] DarthJabba9:
[MENTION=5952980]jajk[/MENTION] Interesting thing with 7.3.9 - /system/app/jjhome/ and /system/app/mab/ automatically reappear, even after they have been skinnified away, and they refuse to be deleted :eek:

Other suspicious appearances in /system/app/

MetokNLP

SogouInput
[Redmi Note 2 General] jajk:
[MENTION=5850987]DarthJabba9[/MENTION] That means the apps are probably in vendor/app or data/miui/cust or similar place and only symlinked to app folders. Do a complete search to find their real location.

[MENTION=7123834]H0Odini[/MENTION] Your telepathy seems to be turned off and no one can read your mind to see what ROM version you are talking about.
[Redmi Note 2 General] DarthJabba9:
Thanks. I already sorted it out with this in my initd script

# remove things lagging behind from skinny process
rm -rf /system/app/mab/
rm -rf /system/app/jjhome/
rm -rf /system/app/MetokNLP/
rm -rf /system/app/SogouInput/

I couldn't find anything relevant in vendor/app/ or data/miui/ - but perhaps this is due to my little trick above having worked. I am leaving those lines in my initd script in case they somehow wish to reappear ...
[Redmi Note 2 General] acestars:
[MENTION=5850987]DarthJabba9[/MENTION] would you mind to share your script?
[Redmi Note 2 General] DarthJabba9:
It is nothing fancy - just the "01_init" Skinny script by [MENTION=5952980]jajk[/MENTION] which I then added these lines to.
[Redmi Note 2 General] jajk:
[MENTION=5850987]DarthJabba9[/MENTION] Have a look in the updater-script for your ROM. That will identify how those apps are being generated from symlinks to libs.
[Redmi Note 2 General] DarthJabba9:
Thanks! That was a brilliant suggestion. The symlinks to the 4 culprits were all there ...

I can remove the offending lines by running something like

sed -i '/Metok/d' ./updater-script
[Redmi Note 2 General] acestars:
i have rooted and xposed installed, i cant register uber. After i registered using other phone i cant login using my phone. the error is about i cant connect to server but my internet is working. Any of you have this problem?
[Redmi Note 2 General] H0Odini:
Err miui 7.5.1

If that's what your asking?